Primary Teacher UK: 29 Useful Writing Sites

Primary Teacher UK: 29 Useful Writing Sites – My latest article on primaryteacher-uk.co.uk

29 Useful Writing Sites

Linked to in this post; sites with:

• Ideas and stimuli, including 300 creative writing prompts
• Technical aspects of language, with grammatical pointers
• Writing tools, such as author contact databases and writing frames
• Sites to vary your children’s non-fiction reading diet
• IWB-friendly sites for character description
• High quality assessment

Enjoy!

Ideas / Stimuli

creative writing prompts  – 300 different ideas to get the creative writing process started. Not all of these are suitable at primary level but the majority of them are capable of being adapted.
languageisavirus.com – “Cure writer’s block!”. Well, I’m not sure about that but there are dozens of creative ideas aimed at adults but fully capable of being adapted for children. Great stuff!
ReadWriteThink – American-based site with some great English teaching ideas.
Pixar Shorts – Pixar’s short videos which could be easily used in English lessons relating to plot chronology/sequencing or as a time filler.
Wacky Web Tales  – Create your own stories and poems using these amusing and dynamic templates. Very good for consolidating teaching on different categories of words and phrases
“Kids on the net” – Creative writing, poetry, examples of pupils’ work, activities and games
Technical Aspects of Language

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammarpage.htm – Very comprehensive and easy-to-use site with succinct definitions and examples relating to most grammatical terms.

Dr. Grammar – Frequently Asked Questions – Less or fewer? Affect or Effect? Me, myself or I?

Using Commas – As it says. Simple advice, easy to follow.

Other

contactanauthor.co.uk – Authors in your area who are prepared to visit schools and give readings or participate in workshops.

Literature-Map – The tourist map of literature – Suggests authors you might like and groups writers together, according to similarities of style, content and genre. Also works for films and bands.

Poetry.com rhyming dictionary and thesaurus – Very crisp, uncluttered tool which is easy to use.

David Wray’s Writing Frames – Simple writing frames to help KS2 reluctant/lower ability writers get started.

Interesting non-fiction sites

Brain benders – On the amazingbrain site, where you might also find text that could be adapted for non-fiction work.

Real Life Sea Monsters – 24 Bizarre Creatures of the Deep - Possibly for non-fictional writing, with some adaptation.

Animal Splicer 1.0 – Splice together 2 different animals to create a completely new one! Fun to play with but could be used to create animals for work on habitats or report writing.

25 Worlds Weirdest Animals – Might be useful / could be adapted for non-fiction / habitats.

Howstuffworks.com – Great for non-fiction / comprehension at KS2 with a little adaptation.

Character and Description

Design a Lego head – Ideal for creating characters or describing features.

Design your own Lego character  – Like the head but a whole body plus accessories. Great fun

UGO.com HERO MACHINE Classic! – Superb fun! Design and print your own super hero or comic book character.

Make your own Mr Man or Little Miss – For character descriptions or just for fun!

Assessment

Writing assessment document courtesy of Leigh St Peter’s School – Very detailed descriptors for assessing writing sublevels.

Ros Wilson Writing Levels – Brilliantly simple and clear method of levelling writing; found on the Kent GfL Site.